My credit score is 805. In the middle of a job/moving/life transition I was uninsured, went to the ER, and had about 9k-10k in bills (billed from separate providers at different times making it very confusing). Extremely overpriced because they did nothing for me. What a sham. #America
I paid off all accounts except the big one for $5950. This hospital is notorious for not negotiating debt. It is now in collections but it wasn't sold to this collections bureau. They handle the debt for the hospital--they don't buy it. From my understanding it seems to be "assigned debt".
Nothing is showing on my credit report yet--collections bureau is the one that will report on behalf of the hospital. Incident/bills were from Feb 2017. My 1st collections notice was Sep 2018.
Spoke with collections and hospital has strict policies about settling for 20% off my bill and no more than that. Also, if I enter a payment plan with them there is no future opportunity of settlement. I submitted an offer to them of 35% off my bill and the hospital did not accept.
My options are:
-20% off, pay in full OR
-make monthly payments and as long as I stay current they will not report to credit agencies...no future opportunity of settlement.....however, this does not prevent hospital from assigning the debt to some other agency in the future, or not reporting it in the future right?
-let it hit my credit report and since it's my first account in collections it will hit it hard and stay for 7 yrs. I think the statue of limitations is 5 years here. My husband's credit score is in the 740's range and we will probably buy a house again now that we've decided to stay in the area.
Advice on what to do?
ETA: I'm leaning toward option 2 but I was hoping someone with more experience can give me input about the possibility of it hitting my credit report....collections people said it won't be reported as long as my account stays current. Also want to clarify it IS in collections but hasn't been reported to credit bureaus.
Submitted October 20, 2018 at 11:01AM by luluNova https://ift.tt/2J9ISUT
